AHC: Successful Coffee Party

SlyDessertFox

SlyDessertFox

For a brief moment in 2010, it seemed like the coffee party could potentially have evolved into an "anti-tea party" or a "leftist tea party" grassroots movement. Then almost as fast as it burst onto the scene in February and March, it dissipated and has become largely forgotten, eclipsed by Occupy Wall Street the following year.

So how can the Coffee Party build on its momentum and become a successful movement similar to the tea party?
 

OnlyAlb

Maybe Obama losing in 2012 could cause a Coffee Party to arise to Protest Romney's policies and Democrats who occasionally support them. So they start to primary people like Warner, Schumer, Menendez, and others.
 
SlyDessertFox

SlyDessertFox

OnlyAlb said:
Maybe Obama losing in 2012 could cause a Coffee Party to arise to Protest Romney's policies and Democrats who occasionally support them. So they start to primary people like Warner, Schumer, Menendez, and others.
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Is there any way to do it without Obama losing in 2012?
 
Mr_ Bondoc

Mr_ Bondoc

Well there was the bankruptcy of Air America in 2010. It was supposed to be the progressive answer to FOX, had radio personalities ranging from Al Franken to Rachel Maddow. What if it had found the funding to keep going in the 66 stations it was located in?
 
SlyDessertFox

SlyDessertFox

Mr_ Bondoc said:
Well there was the bankruptcy of Air America in 2010. It was supposed to be the progressive answer to FOX, had radio personalities ranging from Al Franken to Rachel Maddow. What if it had found the funding to keep going in the 66 stations it was located in?
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Why exactly did Air America go bankrupt? Also, what are the chances they would be able to successfully move into the television sphere?
 

NKVD

The Coffee Party wasn't leftist though. This, quoting from the second article, was about as leftist as they got as a whole:

The mission statement declares that the federal government is “not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges we face as Americans.”
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The rest is a bunch of milquetoast moderate stuff, including stuff about "fiscal responsibility". And that's the main reason why they probably wouldn't be able to get anywhere: there's no energy. Occupy Wall Street was somewhat successful because it galvanized leftists.

In fact, the founders of the movement (or one of them) are Republicans.

Also, the nature of their existence just doesn't give me much hope. The Coffee Party was a mediocre Johnny-come-lately reaction to the Tea Party -- they even say so in their name -- and stuff like that doesn't really work. It's like when Microsoft made Zune to compete with iTunes. The Coffee Party was Zune.
 
SlyDessertFox

SlyDessertFox

Richard Harrow said:
The Coffee Party wasn't leftist though. This, quoting from the second article, was about as leftist as they got as a whole:



The rest is a bunch of milquetoast moderate stuff, including stuff about "fiscal responsibility". And that's the main reason why they probably wouldn't be able to get anywhere: there's no energy. Occupy Wall Street was somewhat successful because it galvanized leftists.

In fact, the founders of the movement (or one of them) are Republicans.

Also, the nature of their existence just doesn't give me much hope. The Coffee Party was a mediocre Johnny-come-lately reaction to the Tea Party -- they even say so in their name -- and stuff like that doesn't really work. It's like when Microsoft made Zune to compete with iTunes. The Coffee Party was Zune.
Click to expand...

All good points. So let's change the parameters up a bit:

How could something akin to an anti-tea party (we'll say they call themselves the Coffee Party for simplicities sake), successfully arise as a reaction to the tea party's rise? From what it looks like, it would have to start earlier than the OTL Coffee Party.
 
Mr_ Bondoc

Mr_ Bondoc

SlyDessertFox said:
Why exactly did Air America go bankrupt? Also, what are the chances they would be able to successfully move into the television sphere?
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One of the main problems was that Air America was often trying to get nonprofit agencies, NGOs and in some cases the listeners to help with pledge drives. The fundraising was also hampered with a slow rate of return from radio stations.
 

NKVD

SlyDessertFox said:
All good points. So let's change the parameters up a bit:

How could something akin to an anti-tea party (we'll say they call themselves the Coffee Party for simplicities sake), successfully arise as a reaction to the tea party's rise? From what it looks like, it would have to start earlier than the OTL Coffee Party.
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The only way I can think of is making the ACA tank somehow.
 

Lateknight

Banned
Leftist are far too fragmented and argumentative to do something like this ironic the people that want to organize labor are in able of oration themselves.
 

Mako-Chan

Mr_ Bondoc said:
Well there was the bankruptcy of Air America in 2010. It was supposed to be the progressive answer to FOX, had radio personalities ranging from Al Franken to Rachel Maddow. What if it had found the funding to keep going in the 66 stations it was located in?
Click to expand...

A lot of the problems here stem from demographics. As pointed out here radio skews older and NPR filled a similar role at the time. The internet has allowed people like the Young Turks to attract much wider audiences and notoriety than something like Air America ever could anyway.
 
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SlyDessertFox

SlyDessertFox

Mako-Chan said:
A lot of the problems here stem from demographics. As pointed out here radio skews older and NPR filled a similar role at the time. The internet has allowed people like the Young Turks to attract much wider audiences and notoriety than something like Air America ever could anyway.
Click to expand...

Could they make a successful shift to television?
 

Gog (♀)

Idea:

Gore wins in 2000 and dies in 9/11. Lieberman becomes Prez and has the wars occur, and are still bad but not nearly as so. Some moderate anti war Republican (Chafee?) wins in 08 and the scenario is the same as OTL but flipped.
 
SlyDessertFox

SlyDessertFox

Gog3451 said:
Idea:

Gore wins in 2000 and dies in 9/11. Lieberman becomes Prez and has the wars occur, and are still bad but not nearly as so. Some moderate anti war Republican (Chafee?) wins in 08 and the scenario is the same as OTL but flipped.
Click to expand...

A President Lincoln Chafee timeline...interesting.
 
SlyDessertFox

SlyDessertFox

Mr_ Bondoc said:
Well the answer is yes, considering the success of personalities such as Rachel Maddow, Al Franken, and the Young Turks.
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How successful could it be? What effect might it have on the political discussion, and can it play the role for TTL's Coffee Party that FOX provided for the Tea Party?

Gog3451 said:
He is literally the only anti war relevant republican of that time, and I think that given the oppertunity he would reignite the Rockefeller republicans. Also metric system
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Chafee can into relevance! :p Though might McCain still win despite his pro-war stance? Or might there be more anti-war Republicans running since the war was started by a Democrat?
 

Somedevil

As someone who both did a few Coffee party chats and some OWS stuff. I think the better move is mobilize some of the more moderate members of OWS who were basically the more vocal coffee party guys. But there not anarchist or out right libertarians/ Tea party types which some of the more extreme OWS people were.

Since during the height of OWS October/November of 2011. I had talks with friends who was organizing there local OWS movements and they already were tiring of dealing with the more extreme's at the marches.

So set up some sort of revelation that they could pool there talent along with the democrats instead of as a lone wolf.
 
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